Sometimes things change
by zoe elizabethx
Summary: Unexpected feelings from Nell arise when Eric goes undercover in his old hack group to get the names of of people selling top secret government information. All Nell can do is watch from Ops as Eric gets close to a woman who pretty much idolizes Eric and his skill. Nell can barley stand to watch this. How will Nell deal with it these emotions, and will they affect the pair?


_**This was only mean to be a short drabble of a jealous!Nell request on tumblr, but it turned into over 1500 words so I'm going to post it here too :) Enjoy xx**_

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Nell gritted her teeth, tightening her jaw as all she could do was watch from Ops as some blonde with rosy cheeks and dimples flirted with Eric. A hacking group Eric use to be a part of (the reason he was currently working for NCIS and not in prison) was suspected of selling government secrets about classified military operations to the highest bidder, with no care on who got their hands on it. As far as this woman knew, Eric didn't work for NCIS, he didn't work for anyone, he had been underground for a while, claiming that a lot of agencies were still looking for him, and the woman, Violet, looked up at him like he was a rockstar.

"Violet, I'm going to trust you okay?" Eric reached out and placed his hand over hers, "This can't leave us, no one needs to know I'm back for this reason, so if you know anything or anyone to do with the trading and selling of government information, you need to tell me. I know it's not everyone, but we're all being seen as the bad guys here, and I know that's not true," he squeezed her hand for added effect. "So if I can stop this before anyone higher up does and most likely shuts this group down, it would make a huge difference."

"I'm surprised, he's actually better than we gave him credit for," Callen's voice sounded and broke Nell's stare off with the monitor which held the l surveillance video.

"He's been watching you guys for over five years now, of course he would pick up a few things," Nell begin to tap her thumb nervously. "I'm just worried he'll go too far and not know how to get out, I should be there."

Callen smirked, it was the exact same when Nell was away, Eric watch the screen either nervous or jealous, the older agent was just surprised that Nell was being both. "You should be, or you want to be?" The analyst flicked her eyes, her brows knitting for a moment before returning to the screen. "Also I don't think that nose scrunch earlier would be classes as worried, maybe more like-"

"Don't you have somewhere to be, where's Sam?" Nell interrupted.

"There's not much else to do until Eric gets information, Kens and Deeks are staking outside the warehouse Eric and the suspect are in, there's nothing else we could be doing."

"You can review their internet history and look for anything suspicious," Nell pointed out in a snide voice. She turned back to the computer, the mouse rightly squeezed in her palm as she continued to watch this girl flirt with Eric, the only satisfaction Nell got out of this was the possibility of the girl finding out Eric was playing her if they had to bring her in, and Nell was praying to anyone listening that they could.

"All I can tell you is what they've told me, I'm not sure they entirely trust me yet. But I've seen and read things I'm not sure are explainable or not," Violet's fingers played with Eric's, and her thumb was grazing over his arm.

"You can tell me," he clasped her hands with his," Eric felt a bit weird lying to this woman, deceiving her for information that could get her in trouble, especially while she did it all thinking he was a different Eric Beale and showing her admiration with gentle touches. "I promise, no one will even know we met."

"Promise?"

Nell watched as the woman leaned in closer, caressing his face. Nell's teeth began to grind, the longer she watched the more her stomach unsettled. Nell wasn't use to being so jealous, there could also quite possibly be some slight envy in there too, not only did she want to stop it, (and all she had to do was interrupt with a phone call) she wanted to be that close to Eric, hold his hand with lazily curled fingers and graze her thumb over the stubble on his cheeks.

Before Nell could stop herself she turned on comms, she could feel Callen's glare behind her, and the only justification Nell had was Eric would probably do it too. "And it's only been twenty minutes," she spoke with sarcasm. Nell then witnessed Eric jump slightly on screen and she couldn't help a small smile.

"Everything okay?" Violet said softly, gripping his arm.

"Everything's great I don't know why she has to keep touching you though," Nell cut in the snarky comment before Eric could answer.

"Everything's good, I just thought I saw a cockroach, but I think it's just some dirt." Eric moved his hand over hers again,"Sorry about that-"

"I'm not," Nell smirked. She watched Eric's jaw tense, and Nell bit her tongue, maybe she went to far with that one, the last thing she wanted was to ruin Eric's first time alone in the field.

"Keep going Violet, I need to make sure whoever is doing this and putting the blame on innocent people like you, stop. I promise nothing will happen to you either, I have people who can protect you if anything comes up, which it probably won't," Eric continued. Was this payback for all the times he had interrupted Nell when she was undercover?

He quickly brushed the thought from his mind as Violet gave him the information he needed.

* * *

Half an hour later the blond tech strolled back through Ops door, placing the earwig with more force than needed to grab his partners attention before stepping beside her, by the island. He was taken aback a little when all she did was glance towards him, then back to her device and returning to work without a word.

"So, uh, how did I do?" Eric asked, not quite sure about the sudden mood change with the brunette, "At the undercover..." he picked up his tablet from where he had left it earlier.

Nell simply shrugged her shoulders, "You got the information we needed, there was no complications. You did good," her voice was flat, no outward showing pride in him, or excitement, like the kind that had been beating in his chest during every moment of the day leading up to it. Nell seemed disinterested with the whole thing.

Eric waited a silent moment, but Nell just returned to typing. He felt crushed, he deserved more than that right? He had gotten a better talk from Kensi and Deeks when they had dropped him off. "Right, okay. I'll just search for those people," his lips twisted, feeling disconnected from his partner.

Nell felt as though her stomach was an endless pit, she was getting use to growing closer with Eric, holding him at arms length felt horrible, especially with the fallen look on his face when she barely answered him. After Eric was done and on the way back to OSP, she had realized how jealous she had actually been, that it was a relief to her when Eric left and the woman no longer had her hands on him. Nell's feelings for Eric lately were becoming more apparent, and today it hit her right in the face, and she was scared. Scared that she wouldn't be able to keep her personal life out of her professional, but when you work so closely with the person you have affections for the lines become blurred, that was one thing that rattled Nell Jones' brain, and when she is unable to separated it she just ends up pushing him away even more. It made Nell feel so guilty.

Then she heard him sigh, and her fingers stopped on the screen and she placed her device down, slowly turning her head to look him over again. "Eric," it left her mouth so quiet she wasn't sure if he had actually heard her, because the was a pause before he turned to her. In seconds she was on her tip toes, arms wrapped around his neck, her head buried between her arm and his neck. Nell felt his hands slowly settle around her back, a little startled with her actions. "You did really great today, Eric," she sighed herself. "I'm sorry for pretending like it didn't matter, and I'm sorry acting childish over comms, it couldn't have helped," she admitted, but she didn't pull back right away, she felt quite a lot more calm and okay with her head beside his as the faint scent of the sea entwined in the collar of his shirt.

"It's okay, at least now I know I didn't do anything wrong," he said quietly. "Plus, childish isn't exactly the word I would use," he let a smirk take hold of his features.

Nell pulled back to narrow her eyes towards him, "What would you call it exactly?" She enjoyed that he was now smiling, and it was hard for her not to as well. Also that his hands were still on her sides, holding her up.

"The word 'jealous' comes to mind."

Nell rolled her eyes, "Oh really, 'jealous'. I thought we used the word 'competitive'."

One of Eric's hands moved up her back, settling on her left shoulder blade, "Sometimes things change," his voice was only audible for Nell, his eyes were stuck on hers, drowning in pools of perfectly shaded hazel.

"And so do people."

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_**Tell me if you liked it, honestly don't tell me if you didn't, but please review :)**_

_**Also, I end up writing a lot of short drabbles only for tumblr that are primarily Neric ones, that never make it here. So if you guys were interested in a fanfiction with chapters of different short Neric drabbles tell me that too :) (we have a lack on here so it might be nice.)**_


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